Nowhere to Hide: IRS to Hire Bounty Hunters to Go After Tax Scofflaws

In a cage match between death and taxes, the winner would be taxes, as the Internal Revenue Service, the second-most hated branch of the United States government (after the TSA), has announced that private bounty-hunters will soon be coming for repeat-offender tax scofflaws.

US citizens who have somehow illegally managed to avoid filing or paying taxes, as well as those who are in default of payments and fines, may now be forced to go underground, as private bounty-hunters in the form of roving tax collectors will now be despatched by four companies contracted by the IRS to track them down.

If you are only a little bit behind, however, do not start packing your bags just yet, as the IRS will currently only be sending warning letters at the pace of a few hundred each week, and only to those whose bills have been overdue for years, according to local Houston, Texas, ABC affiliate KTRK.

Those numbers could grow considerably, however, as the IRS seeks to ramp up to sending thousands of warning letters on a weekly basis following a requirement by the US Congress to mandate private-sector debt collection as a means of funding road infrastructure; part of the 2015 Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, according to NBC.

Rank and file employees at the IRS are less than happy, as the move is thought likely to result in "collection agents getting paid to harass taxpayers, many of whom need assistance, not threats," according to Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

In consideration of whatever preparations have to be made by those US citizens preparing to go on the run to avoid paying taxes, the IRS will, however, helpfully supply the name and contact information of the private company that will be placed on your trail.

According to a statement by agency commissioner John Koskinen, "The IRS is taking steps throughout this effort to ensure that the private collection firms work responsibly and respect taxpayer rights."

It is not known whether the fees paid to tax-collecting bounty hunters will meet or exceed the amounts owed to the government by the hapless tax-scofflaws.

promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;

contains links to viruses and malicious software;

is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");

“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;

violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");

doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.